Ineos Interpid Brings First US Shale Gas Cargo to UK

INEOS The first shipment of US shale gas has arrived in the UK today aboard the LPG tanker JS Ineos Interpid, operated by Swedish chemicals giant Ineos. Featuring 20,917 dwt, the tanker was heading to Ineos Grangemouth plant in Scotland, where it was set to unload 27,500 cubic metres of ethane extracted from beneath western Pennsylvania, US, according to The Guardian. The shipment is said to be the result of a GBP 1.6 billion (USD 2 billion) investment in eight tankers which would connect the US with the UK and Norway. The cargo aboard the 2015-built vessel arrives in the country a day after the Scottish Labor party called for a ban on fracking, a process of drilling down into the earth before a high-pressure water mixture is directed at the rock to release the gas inside. The Scottish Government announced a memorandum on all planning consents for unconventional oil and gas extraction, including fracking for shale gas, in early 2015. At the beginning of September, JS Ineos Interpid loaded the first cargo of ethane to be exported from Morgan’s Point, Texas terminal, operated by US-based provider of midstream energy services Enterprise Products Partners L.P. The tanker, carrying some 265,000 barrels of ethane, sailed from Morgan’s Point to the INEOS facility at Rafnes in Norway. World Maritime News Staff